PI SCOOPLET… DRAFT TIM SCOTT: Rep. Tim Scott's (R-S.C.) name is being bandied about as a potential successor to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), but now that movement has formalized with an "Appoint Tim Scott" movement. The group sent an email blast to South Carolina conservatives (and Washington reps) asking people to contact South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to push Scott's case. Click here to see the petition: http://bit.ly/TLDnMM

THE (ALMOST) FINAL WORD ON THE (EASILY) MOST EXPENSIVE FEDERAL ELECTION EVER: The 2012 presidential election truly proved historic when it came to campaign cash, with the broad campaign operations of both President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney raising more than $1 billion. And that doesn’t even include the hundreds of millions of dollars more raised by supportive super PACs and politically active nonprofit groups. Dave and Tarini team with Kenneth P. Vogel to explain, as candidates, parties and political committees filed their post-general election campaign finance reports last night: http://politi.co/Vsn4l7

And from these reports, much news across the political board. Among the other prevailing storylines:

The Romney and Obama campaigns combined to spend about $170 million on advertising alone during the final 2 ½ weeks of the election. And Obama’s overall spending during this brief period could’ve funded every city government function in Dayton, Ohio, for more than a year. Dave and Tarini report here: http://politi.co/RemBYM and here: http://politi.co/SLr0AL

Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and wife, Miriam, pumped another $10 million into pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future in the election’s final days — part of a flurry of 11th hour giving from the election season’s most prolific Republican bankrollers. Who also made a late donation to the group? Bob Barker. Yes, that Bob Barker, Dave writes: http://politi.co/SSHLbC

The National Republican Senatorial Committee made a late — and major — play to bolster the flagging Senate campaign of Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), our John Bresnahan and Manu Raju report: http://politi.co/VC87Da

Energy interests were plenty active in the campaign’s final few weeks, POLITICO colleague Alex Guillen reports in Morning Energy: http://politi.co/TLJl0o

Not super at all: SpeechNow.org, a conservative group that helped prompt the creation of super PACs, reported spending $28 during the election’s final days while raising not a cent.

No greenbacks for the Green Party of the United States, which ended the election $35,850 in the red. Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, meanwhile, is more than $197,000 in debt with less than $3,000 cash on hand.

Campaign and other political committees will file the final, final word on their 2012 election cycle finances next month, when they must submit documents that account for their activities through Dec. 31. OUTSIDE GROUPS STILL SPENDING BIG IN ONE CONGRESSIONAL RACE: Think outside political groups have stopped promoting and attacking federal candidates just because Election Day came and went last month? Think again: This Saturday’s congressional runoff between Reps. Jeff Landry (R-La.) and Charles Boustany (R-La.) has attracted significant outside spending — $725,000 and counting since Election Day, a PI tally of federal reports indicates.

Not quite half of this spending (supporting Landry) is from FreedomWorks for America, the embattled super PAC arm of tea party juggernaut FreedomWorks, whose leader, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), quit this week. FreedomWorks for America Chief Operating Officer Ryan Hecker tells PI that the group is not only hoping to propel Landry back into office — he’s a “top, young conservative leader in the House,” Hecker said — but to use the runoff as an opportunity to “expand our network and grassroots” across the nation. Recent polls show Boustany leading Landry.

Other outside groups spending during the runoff include pro-Landry Tea Party Leadership Fund, Liberty for All Super PAC and National Horizon, and pro-Boustany groups Conservative Strikeforce and Louisiana Prosperity Fund. The American College of Radiology Association Political Action Committee and National Emergency Medicine Political Action Committee have also spent in support of Boustany.

An eternally infamous Friday to you, PI faithful, as we mark the 71 st anniversary of Pearl Harbor’s bombing by the Empire of Japan, which prompted the United States to enter World War II the next day.

On a decidedly sunnier note: Props to Delaware for becoming the first state, on this day 225 years ago, to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Vice President Joe Biden has personally ordered all Amtrak train engineers to announce this fact over and again to their passengers throughout the day. OK, so that’s a complete lie.

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend, and now, back to the day’s top influence industry news …

BUSH ALUMNI GATHER: Tis the season for about 300 Bush-Cheney Administration alumni who gathered last night at the Washington Club to celebrate the holidays and look forward to 2016. Former chiefs of staff Josh Bolten and Andy Card delivered remarks and thanked attendees for their service. Karl Rove was also spotted in the crowd.

MCCASKILL RETIRES DEBT, MEETS K STREET: Sen. Claire McCaskill's looking to retire some debt over lunch Tuesday at Bistro Bis. Organizers are promoting the event as "her first event since the election." Contribution levels for the Missouri Democrat: $5,000; $2,500 and $1,000.

INAUGURATION PLANNING BEGINS: Anna and Donovan Slack have the latest on the Presidential Inauguration Committee's release of limited information and how there's not expected to be much pomp and circumstance with Obama's second inauguration. But there's plenty of private events hosted by companies, trade associations and law firms. Here's the full story: http://politi.co/Vo76sD

HEY CONGRESS, WANT AN IMMEDIATE SALARY BOOST? Then quit public service and go lead a think tank. The nonprofit world of big ideas offers some serious compensation, Tarini writes, as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) ditches elected office to head up The Heritage Foundation: http://politi.co/VohSPM

MORNING TECH THEFT… WOODWORTH TO INTERNET ASSOCIATION: GOP lobbyist Gina Woodworth is joining the recently launched Internet Association as vice president of public policy and government affairs. She joins from The Entertainment Software Association, where she served as senior director of federal government affairs. She also previously was staff director of the U.S. Senate High Tech Task Force.

ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE GROUP DANCES INTO HOLIDAY SEASON: The Entertainment Software Association held its annual holiday party at Rock N Roll Hotel on H St., complete with member company Ubisoft's "Just Dance 4" and "Assassin's Creed III."

NOT JUST REGISTERED, BUT CERTIFIED LOBBYISTS: You certainly don’t need a piece of paper on your wall to work as a federal lobbyist. But 17 lobbyists have this year completed the American League of Lobbyists’ Lobbying Certificate Program, through which they attend a series of classes, lectures and seminars that the league says constitutes a “rigorous training program focused on enabling them to conduct their craft with the highest level of skill and ethical standards” while giving them a “full set of tools to effectively guide legislative proposals through the policy making process.”

Also: Randall Jefferson of Factotum Government Solutions; Paul Kelly of The Federal Group; Tammie S. Logan of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association; George Lynch of the NYSA-ILA Training Center; Julie Harris McCrey of RTD Embedded Technologies Inc.; James Warner of State and Federal Communications and Robert Whittemore of 4Site Strategic Assets.

AVIATION ASSOCIATIONS HIRE LOBBY SHOPS: Two aviation associations — U.S. Airline Pilots Association and National Air Traffic Controllers Association — signed with lobbying firms this week, according to Senate lobbying disclosures.

U.S. Airline Pilots Association has hired 3 Click Solutions' Patrick Murphy to lobby on behalf its 5,200 mainline pilots who fly for U.S. Airways. The trade group has not hired any other contract lobbying firms this year.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has also hired The Keelen Group's Frank McCarthy and Stephen Borg to lobby on the Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act, Budget Control Act of 2011, Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011 and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2013, according to a Senate lobbying filing. BGR Group and McCann Capitol Advocates have previously lobbied for the group this year.

DAILY FUNNY: What’s in a subject line? More, maybe, than the folks at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. intended when they sent out an email entitled “Meet Tiffany.” It prompted one federal government relations director for a prominent company to remark, “My first thought, when I saw this email in my box was, ‘Why am I getting porn spam from the White House?’” In truth, the message is about a woman in Virginia and how tax cuts aimed at the middle class would affect her family.

The Federal Communications Commission is silent on whether it will make improvements to its website that records political ad spending, reports Justin Elliott of ProPublica. http://bit.ly/YRRswf

Law firm of Holtzman Vogel Josefiak advised several GOP super PACs and nonprofits in the 2012 election, but it won’t disclose who is paying its bills, reports Alison Fitzgerald of Bloomberg News. http://bloom.bg/UJZdRR

The Associated Press officially calls the 2012 presidential election as the most expensive in American political history. http://nydn.us/QMO421

The Tampa International Airport has turned to lobbying firm Van Scoyoc Associates to help recover tens of millions of dollars spent on baggage security, reports Mark Holan of Tampa Bay Business Journal. http://bit.ly/XvfMn6

NEW POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE FILINGS: None.

NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS (firm: client):

3 Click Solutions LLC: U.S. Airline Pilots Association

Capitol Decisions Inc.: Peer Assistance Services

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Authors:

About The Author

Anna Palmer is a senior Washington correspondent for POLITICO and co-author of POLITICO’s Playbook, the most indispensable morning newsletter for the biggest influencers in politics.

Anna covers the world of Congress and politics, and has successfully chronicled the business of Washington insiders for years. Her stories take readers behind the scenes for the biggest fights in Washington as well as the 2016 election.

Prior to becoming POLITICO’s senior Washington correspondent, Anna was the co-author of the daily newsletter, POLITICO Influence, considered a must-read on K Street.

Anna previously covered House leadership and lobbying as a staff writer for Roll Call. She got her start in Washington journalism as a lobbying business reporter for the industry newsletter Influence. She has also worked at Legal Times, where she covered the intersection of money and politics for the legal and lobbying industry, first as a staff writer and then as an editor.

A native of North Dakota, Anna is a graduate of St. Olaf College, where she was executive editor of the weekly campus newspaper, the Manitou Messenger. She lives in Washington, D.C.

About The Author

Dave Levinthal reports on political influence issues for POLITICO. Before joining POLITICO, Dave worked for two years as editor of OpenSecrets.org at the Center for Responsive Politics, where he oversaw the Center's original journalism and provided analysis to hundreds of television, radio and print news outlets.

Between 2003 and 2009, Dave reported on Dallas City Hall for The Dallas Morning News, and from 2000 to 2002, covered the New Hampshire Statehouse for the Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune. He graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in newspaper journalism and political philosophy and edited The Daily Orange.

Some may argue, but there is no more dedicated Bills fan than this Buffalo, N.Y., native.